Stephanie McGregor, Community Service Award
Stephanie McGregor joined CUNY Law staff in 2005.
As the Assistant Director of Career Planning, she counsels and supports students in realizing their career goals and aspirations to practice law in the service of human needs.
Each summer she spearheads a full-day Court Orientation for the entering class to observe city and federal courts, followed by a report-back and Lawyer’s Pledge in the Ceremonial Court Room.
Stephanie served as an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Administrative Law and Regulatory Litigation Division at the New York City Law Department for 15 years, where she was responsible for the prosecution and litigation of unsafe buildings for the New York City Department of Buildings. Stephanie maintained an active caseload of more than 50 affirmative and defensive cases challenging or initiating municipal actions. Following a career at the Law Department, Stephanie was a hearing examiner and administrative judge with the New York City Department of Finance and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Stephanie is a first-generation New Yorker, whose parents immigrated to the United States as adults. She grew up in St. Albans, Queens, and attended New York City public schools. She received her BA from Mount Holyoke College, MBA from Pace University, MA in International Affairs from Columbia University, and a JD from Rutgers University School of Law.
Stephanie is a member of the Association of Black Women Attorneys; Metropolitan Black Bar Association; and the New York City Bar Association, where she is a member of the Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers Committee that sponsors the City Bar’s Diversity Fellowship Program, and the New Lawyer Institute that supports the needs of recent graduates as they transition from student to practitioner and prepares them for success.
Remarks: Community Service Award
Thank you, Dean Capulong.
Good Morning and Congratulations Class of 2021.
Yes, this day has finally come.
Class of 2021, thank you, thank you, thank you for bestowing upon me the Community Service Award.
As the first-born child of immigrants who came to New York City when they were adults, I am deeply honored. My parents firmly believed in community service, equality, and equity, and all of us are working to achieve their dream.
This has been some year, right?
So much sadness, so many new and evolving challenges we could never have imagined. It reminded me of when I joined CUNY Law in Fall 2005. It was such a challenging time for the Law School and for our country with the premature and unexpected passing of Professor Luis DeGraffe, and the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina. Yet, we have proven time and again our resilience, as a school community as we work to meet the needs of an evolving legal and professional landscape.
This world will no doubt be fraught with uncertainty for some, detours for others, and evolving needs – especially to those seeking to craft a world in furtherance of law in the public interest, for work in the support of and in service of human needs.
Class of 2021 you have demonstrated that you are up to this task and that you will put life and positive energy into our mission.
The entire Career Planning team and I are honored to have played a part in your journey. It has been my absolute pleasure to get to know many of you. I stand ready with my colleagues in Career Planning – Sam, Therese, Rosa, and Alana – to support you as you begin and develop your career trajectory, as the case may be—yes, it is true—we are available to you in perpetuity—– I have been waiting to say those words in context, and not often one has a chance to do so outside of a law school classroom or bar prep, and certainly not in polite or normal conversation as you navigate your world.
I also humbly accept this award on behalf of every staff member who toils – often in unrecognized, unknown ways, addressing the challenges of running a law school especially this year – in full support of our students and who universally share a love for our mission.
Class of 2021, I wish you well on your journey, and in the words of my great aunt, mentor, and godmother:
WALK GOOD.
I am now proud to turn over the zoom mike to our 2021 Public Interest Award recipient and CUNY Law alum Cesar Vargas.